By Stephanie Paige Ogburn As the general economic malaise coincides with impending spring fever, recession gardening has come into vogue. Stories of record-high seed sales pepper the news, along with musings about modern-day Victory Gardens saving people money on produce sales. I’ve been gardening — most...

By Greg Massa I’m a California rice farmer, but recently in Germany I was a rock star. Or at least that’s what it felt like. Oddly, my celebrity status came from a speech I gave to European farmers about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). I’ve spoken and written on this topic numerous times here in the...

By Samin Nosrat | Illustration by Marcos Sorenson Read Pt. 2: Why Bay Area residents should choose local pork Before Edible San Francisco readers start lobbing flaming Molotov pigtails at me, let me say that as a cook, I was brought up in the Chez Panisse kitchen. And as a writer, I’ve studied with...

By Elise McDonough For more than 10 years, a lush oasis flourished in South Central Los Angeles, surrounded by warehouses and industry. An incredibly beautiful place, the 14-acre community garden known as South Central Farm hosted towering trees, cacti, tropical fruits, and innumerable vegetables, herbs,...

By Steph Larsen When we talk about local food, it means more than just proximity to a farm. We associate supporting “local food” with supporting specific values — such as family ownership, local control, small scale, environmental stewardship, community, and ecological diversity. These values...

By Barry Foy When it comes to Christmas cheer, St. Nick has nothing on the big biotech and pharmaceutical firms this year, with the release of an unprecedented number of holiday-related products expected over the next few weeks. Given the sector’s legendary lack of sentimentality, this nod toward...

by Steph Larsen In the five weeks since the election and almost a month since my first post about the Secretary of Agriculture, a lot has changed. But one thing has become increasingly clear: the people that voted for Barack Obama expect change at the head of USDA. The next person to head the Department of...

By Steph Larsen In my last post for the Ethicurean, I discussed likely candidates for Secretary of Agriculture in the Obama Administration and encouraged you to voice your support or dislike of the names being floated to Obama’s transition team. You can have an impact: in large numbers, voices of the people...

By Steph Larsen Editor’s note: With readers clamoring in the comments section and a petition started for President-Elect Barack Obama to appoint Michael Pollan as Secretary of Agriculture (read Pollan’s response below), I asked a Beltway-savvy acquaintance to summarize just how fertile the...

By Ben Bowman For the fish-loving Ethicurean, pensive while paddling a small craft through the treacherous Straits of Seafood Uncertainty, the signal ‘Safe Passage Ahead’ beamed from a passing research ship is more than enough to make the heart lift and quicken. This was the effect on the fish-focused...

By Debra Eschmeyer, cross-posted with the UEPI News & Commentary blog of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College. “Hey, USDA, what’s up with three meals a day?” “Hey, USDA, how can I learn if I can’t eat?” “Hey, USDA, imagine I’m your kid!” Watch the full 22 seconds. Yesterday...

By Johanna Kolodny I didn’t find out until the end of Polyface Farm’s Field Day last month that this gathering — set in the Blue Ridge Mountain town of Swoope (pronounced Swope), Virginia — was illegal. Polyface owner Joel Salatin, the farmer made famous in Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s...